Dietary fish oil levels modulated lipid metabolism, immune response, intestinal health and salinity stress resistance of juvenile Penaeus monodon fed a low fish-meal diet

Dietary fish meal (FM) and fish oil (FO) replacement are crucial for the sustainable development of aquaculture. An eight weeks feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the potential replacing FM with soy protein concentrate, and the suitable FO level for a low FM diet of Penaeus monodon. A diet containing 25% FM was used as the control (C diet), and three other diets were formulated to contain 15% FM, and supplemented with 3%, 2%, 1% FO [high FO (HF), medium FO (MF) and low FO (LF), respectively]. The experiment was conducted in quadruplicates (30 shrimp per replicate, average weight 1.00 ± 0.01 g). The results indicated that besides the final body weight, there were no differences in weight gain, feed efficiency and survival rate observed among the four groups. The results of the acute salinity stress showed that shrimp fed the C and MF diets showed a similar survival rate, which was significantly higher than those fed a LF diet. Shrimp that were fed HF, MF and LF diets showed a lower level of fatty acid transport-related mRNA expression in the hepatopancreas, compared with those fed the C diet. Shrimp fed HF, MF and LF diets showed lower expression levels of superoxide dismutase, endoplasmic reticulum protein 57 and immune deficiency (IMD) in the hepatopancreas than those fed the C diet. Shrimp that were fed a LF diet showed the lowest expression levels of inhibitor of apoptosis proteins, Toll and tumor necrosis factor receptor associated factor 6 (TRAF6) in the hepatopancreas, as well as the highest expression levels of Toll, extracellular signal-regulated kinase, Relish and TRAF6 in the intestine among four groups. Intestinal microstructure damage was observed in shrimp that were fed a LF diet, and intestinal endoplasmic reticulum (ER) swelling was observed in shrimp fed MF and LF diets. In conclusion, these results indicated that the growth performance of shrimp was not affected when the FM and FO contents decreased, whereas a low content of FM negatively influenced the immune response in shrimp by modulating IMD and ER stress related gene expression. Under low FM conditions, a suitable dietary FO level would benefit to the lipid transport, hepatopancreas and intestine health, as well as the immune response of shrimp.